Welcome to the blog! (Blog is a funny word if you say it a few times.)

Before I even opened my door to students, I had been asked by NPR Illinois Community Voices as well as my local News Channel 20 for an interview about this whole micro school idea. I have also been posting my journey on TikTok and have been so validated by thousands of people commenting words of support and encouragement. People often say they wish this school was around for them and/or their kids (or that I lived closer to them), and they often ask me two questions (1) What is a micro school? And (2) What made you want to do this?

A micro school is a fairly new concept and is spreading quite rapidly right now here in the US. It is simply a small school – I have seen one definition say it is under 150 students–, but most of them that I have seen range about 8-25 kids. Some are just elementary, some are just middle and/or high school grades, and some (like mine) cover grades K-12, back to the one-room-schoolhouse kind of vibe. Some people run them out of their houses like a homeschool, some use a public space like a church or community center, and some are extra creative, like creating a mobile classroom by renovating an old bus! People all over our country are reimagining what K-12 education looks like and taking the leap to open their own little business from home. 

Pride Learning Academy, for now at least, looks kind of like an in-home daycare but for older kids who do not fit in well to the typical public school. So far, all 6 of the students are neurodivergent of one kind or another (although that is not a requirement to attend), and most are members of the LGBTQIA+ community. There is evidence to suggest that neurodivergent people are more likely than neurotypical people to be gay or trans. (I personally think this has to do with our willingness to push the boundaries of our current society and culture by questioning why certain arbitrary rules exist, but also is likely genetically related.) If you have watched Wednesday on Netflix,  Pride Learning Academy is basically a tiny, more colorful version of Nevermore – a school of outcasts. (If you have not watched Wednesday, I highly recommend it! Beautiful character development. But, I digress.)

We are the kids who easily felt more lonely in a group of people than we felt by ourselves. We are the kids who feel things so deeply, and frequently feel misunderstood, which is a particularly terrible feeling. We are the creative, weird kids who sometimes say something at the wrong time despite trying so hard to communicate “normally.” We like to fidget and move. We like to do tasks when we are ready, not when we are forced. We are curious and interested, but only about topics that we actually care about. We have unique needs, but then again, I guess everyone has those. 

I am currently working two jobs in order to plant the seeds of this educational concept. I am very lucky to have access to a work-from-home job that I can do at weird hours (like 1am) from my computer. That helps me pay our bills while I try to start this school, but it is also very exhausting. Turns out, starting a business (especially a school) is a very time and energy consuming endeavor. On top of that and my second job, I am a parent, a spouse, and I have my own creative interests, like writing. I have this strong feeling that I need to be writing, but I cannot seem to find/make the time to do so outside of random journaling in multiple notebooks because I can’t keep track of them.

It is for that reason that I am starting this blog tab on my website. I am hoping by posting it on my school website it will hold me accountable to get on here every couple of days to write an update about my journey opening the school this first year. Additionally, it will be a great way to record my progress to reflect on later and hopefully can inspire someone who comes across my story. 

As for the "why" to build the school in the first place, it comes down to my experience in both public and private school settings as well as an intuitive "knowing," at the risk of sounding a little too "out there." What I saw in my own classrooms and in my graduate program (Masters in Educational Leadership at University of Illinois - Springfield) was a bunch of smart, caring people trying really hard to maintain and improve a system that simply does not work anymore. It's like trying to do cosmetic work on a house that needs a full gut job (I'm talking all new electrical, plumbing - a whole new foundation). I will get into this more later (because it is WAY past my bedtime already), but just know that I reached a point where I knew that education needed to be entirely rebuilt in this country, and I used every resource I had access to in order to go ahead and start building that new foundation. As for the intuitive "knowing" part, I feel I was born to do exactly this. My entire life story has culminated perfectly to this moment, and it feels like I am in a story book right now, but also the author. I get to make up the rules and tell the story that I want to tell. How cool is that? I want to help kids realize that they are in the driver's seat of their own life and, collectively, we are in the driver's seat of our nation and our world. What kind of story do we really want to tell?

I am so immensely grateful for every single comment that has been left on my TikTok videos or Facebook posts, as well as words of encouragement I have received in person from total strangers when they have heard about what I am doing. The support means so much to me and helps remind me that I am not crazy (well, you have to be a little crazy to do this, but I try to keep my feet on the ground). Comments from my students and their parents have been my strongest motivator, though. One of my students commented on one of my TikTok videos after our first week together and said, “I’ve only been there for four days and my mental health is already improving. I can’t believe it’s real, I keep thinking it’s temporary and that I’ll have to go back to my old school. I just can’t believe how wonderful this place is.” Multiple parents have told me that this is the first time that their child has ever actually been excited to go to school. The kids dilly-dally at the end of the school day because they still want to hang out. I am just so proud of this safe community I am building and so grateful to have the resources to do it. I can’t wait to watch it grow as I follow the lead of my incredible students.

Stay tuned! This is only chapter 1!